Iris High 2k - the rest of the story

Well, here are the observations of those two clubs I overlooked
in the first posts. In their own way, these were two successes
of a sort. It's been a miserable time since the end of spring
bloom season before last, so these didn't deserve to be missed.
The rebloomers. Well, actually they didn't much. What they
did was provide the best spring bloom of the TBs as a group.
By far. Whether it was due to their location or to their general
health, they missed the effects of the late freeze and nearly all
the clumps gave prolific bloom. They had received more water
during the preceding months and they received a touch of
noon and afternoon shade. Among those not mentioned earlier,
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS (Byers '89 TB) rich purple bloomed over
a long period; LEORA KATE (Buckles '63 TB) slight greenish
cast to the yellow blooms on shorter stalks probably bloomed
more than half the rhizomes in the clump; EGGNOG (Byers '89
TB) a yellow which doesn't shout put on lots of strong stalks
and with a later bloom time that the other rebloomers; BELVI
QUEEN (Jensen '76 TB) - not very vivid and a bit dull for me and
plics will probably never be my favorites, it still was rewarding with
a quantity of stalks; BABY BLESSED (Zurbrigg '79 SDB) tries to
bloom anytime the conditions look like they might be suitable.
As with many of the medians, it never looks very strong and the
timing of the blooms has resulted in some sad results, there were
still a few which managed to escape the conditions and those
were a sunny delight; WITCH OF ENDOR (Miller, B '82 TB) was
very good. The bloomstalks were staggered which increased the
length of the bloom. HARVEST OF MEMORIES was the only
respectable bloom stalk in the previous fall and that was only
because I cut it the evening before a freeze. GOLD REPRISE had
three stalks showing color which froze, ROYAL SUMMER had tried
a stalk when the weather was still very hot and the bugs ate most
of the two blooms which opened in the bud stage, the rest dried up.
So they did very well indeed as spring bloomers this year, but not
much in the rebloom area.
The Siberians. SEA SHADOWS which has done well in all the
previous years was the location of a crazed armadillo's frantic dig.
It has survived, but it cost me any bloom this summer. But the
others which have been growing after their disastrous beginning here
and begun to make nice clumps did bloom. This was a great pleasure
since they were near death when I decided that this wasn't SIB
country and dug up the bed to discover my mistake. Since then they
have been recovering in regular flower beds consisting of a heave red
clay base. They actually seem to like it pretty well and have good
color this year pretty good bloom. We shall see, but right now things
look promising. Unfortunately, these were so stirred up and relocated
by armadillos in their previous location, I'm not sure who they are. I
have names and now know what some aren't, but since the clumps
that bloomed were all dark blue purple, though some were clearly
different from each other I didn't have time to dig out the photos and
descriptions to see if I could match them up with a name this year.
Hopefully they will continue to do well and I'll be able to identify the
survivors. BUTTER AND SUGAR won't be one. I did manage to keep
it identified and it is slowly disappearing. This was probably the last
growing season here. Unlike the others, it has not made the adjustment
to our conditions. I still have plans to add more if I can ever finish
stopping the wash and these continue to do well. They are a nice
plant all summer with their narrow green leaves.
Donald Eaves
donald@eastland.net
Texas Zone 7, USA
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